The sooner ovarian cancer is found and treated, the better your chance for recovery. But ovarian cancer is hard to detect early. Many times, women with ovarian cancer have no symptoms or just mild symptoms until the disease is in an advanced stage and hard to treat. Read more at Medline Plus, a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Currently, there is no effective early detection method for ovarian cancer. It is usually diagnosed in advanced stages, and only about half of women survive longer than five years after diagnosis. For the 25% of ovarian cancers that are found early, the five-year survival rate is greater than 90%. More information available from the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Ovarian cancer is the second most common type of gynecologic cancer. Of the different types of ovarian cancer, epithelial ovarian cancer is the most common, originating in the cells that cover the surface of the ovary, which are known as epithelial cells. Other rarer kinds of ovarian cancer include germ cell and stromal cell tumors. More information available from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

This fact sheet about ovarian cancer is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Campaign. The campaign helps women get the facts about gynecologic cancer, providing important ‘inside knowledge’ about their bodies and health.

This National Cancer Institute (NCI) booklet is about ovarian epithelial cancer. It is the most common type of ovarian cancer. It begins in the tissue that covers the ovaries. You will read about possible causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. You will also find lists of questions to ask your doctor. It may help to take this booklet with you to your next appointment.

Dr. Judith Wolf and survivor/volunteer Andrea Quinn talk about diagnosis, treatment and the work being done to raise money for ovarian cancer research. Listen to this MD Anderson Cancer Center podcast.

Ovarian Cancer is a rare but serious form of cancer. Early detection is difficult but a new list of warning signs released in June of 2007 is a reminder to women to be aware of their risk. Siteman Cancer Center gynecologic oncologist, David Mutch, MD, discusses the challenges to recognizing this rare form of cancer. Listen to this podcast, presented by the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

There is no existing evidence that any screening test, including CA-125, ultrasound, or pelvic examination, reduces mortality from ovarian cancer. Furthermore, existing evidence that screening can detect early-stage ovarian cancer is insufficient to indicate that this earlier diagnosis will reduce mortality. See National Guideline Clearinghouse major recommendations.

A number of active agents in ovarian cancer (platinum, paclitaxel, topotecan, liposomal doxorubicin, docetaxel, gemcitabine, and etoposide) will be reviewed in the context of what is known about cumulative toxicity, potential adverse effects on patients' quality of life, and evidence addressing the potential benefits of longer-term treatment. Full text available free through Pubmed.

Risks of breast and ovarian cancer were determined for Ashkenazi Jewish women with inherited mutations in the tumor suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Abstract available through PubMed. Full text available free (with registration) through Science.

Currently, there are no effective biomarkers for ovarian cancer prognosis or prediction of therapeutic response. The objective of this study was to examine a panel of 10 serum biochemical parameters for their ability to predict response to chemotherapy, progression and survival of ovarian cancer patients. Full text available free through the British Journal of Cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, and has a high recurrence rate. Thus, prognostic markers for recurrence are crucial for the care of ovarian cancer. As ovarian cancers frequently exhibit chromosome instability, we aimed at assessing the prognostic significance of two key mitotic kinases, BubR1 and Aurora A. Abstract available through PubMed.

Use of oral contraceptives confers long-term protection against ovarian cancer. These findings suggest that oral contraceptives have already prevented some 200,000 ovarian cancers and 100,000 deaths from the disease, and that over the next few decades the number of cancers prevented will rise to at least 30,000 per year. Abstract available through PubMed.

Ovarian cancer is treated with surgery followed by combination chemotherapy with paclitaxel plus carboplatin. In an effort to improve outcomes, clinical trials are evaluating the following strategies: maintenance therapy; intraperitoneal drug administration; new combinations; novel cytotoxics; combination chemotherapy for recurrent disease; and molecular-targeted therapies. Full text available free through Pubmed.

Strains of the attenuated measles virus Edmonston (MV-Edm) vaccine lineage can preferentially infect and destroy cancerous cells while sparing the surrounding tissues. Preclinical efficacy and safety data for engineered oncolytic MV-Edm derivatives that led to their clinical translation are discussed in this review, and an overview of the early experience in three ongoing clinical trials of patients with ovarian cancer, glioblastoma multiforme and multiple myeloma is provided. Full text available free through Pubmed.

To find out who the top doctors are around the country, nonprofit Consumers' CHECKBOOK surveyed roughly 340,000 physicians to tell us which specialists they would want to care for a loved one. The Top Doctors database contains the names of over 23,000 doctors who were mentioned most often. Find top-rated doctors in the fifty largest metropolitan areas, in over thirty-five specialties, and more.

"What makes the Consumers' Guide to Hospitals so special?
We've got 30 million answers to that question. That's how many hospital records Consumers' CHECKBOOK sifted through to calculate risk-adjusted death rates and adverse-outcome rates, and that's just part of the data used to rate the hospitals. The organization also sent out more than 280,000 questionnaires to physicians in 53 major metropolitan areas in the United States, asking them to rate their local hospitals; checked ratings of the hospitals by surveyed consumers; checked which hospitals were providing recommended tests and procedures for patients with specified medical problems; and more."

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